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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/27402451">Before and After</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/the_only_education_worth_having/pseuds/the_only_education_worth_having'>the_only_education_worth_having</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>Requested Fics [48]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Before and After - Fandom</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Accidents, Angst, Babies, Baby Daddy, Cheating, Established Relationship, F/M, Fights, Heartache, Hurt, Jealousy, Plane Crash, Poor behaviour, Recovery, bad girlfriend, mark lives</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-11-05</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-11-05</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-06 21:15:10</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Teen And Up Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>799</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/27402451</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/the_only_education_worth_having/pseuds/the_only_education_worth_having</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>I love Mark. So I stay.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>Requested Fics [48]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/series/937128</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>5</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>Before and After</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>Tumblr <br/>queropraontem asked:<br/>hey, could you do a imagine with the mark sloan x reader where he survives the plane crash? tks</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>
  <span>The first time I stayed was when I found out about Sophia. Relationships weren’t always easy. They were a slog and sometimes hard to handle. I won’t pretend to be perfect and I was under no illusion that Mark was either. I knew he had a way with women and had been with a lot of people before we were together so when he told me Callie was pregnant I didn’t know what to do. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Your boyfriend having a baby with a girl other than you is not an easy pill to swallow. I couldn’t be mad, not really. Mark hadn’t cheated on me. He hadn’t overlapped. They were friends who had slept together and it was hardly some great romance he was hiding from me. They had simply been careless. And that carelessness affected me. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>I didn’t want a baby. Not yet at least. But I saw what it meant to Mark. He wanted to be a dad, he had told me all about his lost time with Sloan and his grandson and his regrets about that. This was his chance and I loved him enough to stay with him even if that meant sacrificing my idea of a ‘perfectly normal family’. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>It didn’t hurt that Sophia Sloan-Torres was pretty cute too. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>-</span>
</p><p>
  <span>The next time I stayed was after our first fight. It had been a doozy. We had made it almost four months of honeymoon bliss until tensions boiled over. It was about a new resident that had joined the program a few weeks previous. He was young, cute, cocky and we got along swell. Mark was livid. He followed us around like he didn’t have cases of his own. He checked up on me more than usual and seemed edgy all the time. It drove me insane. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>I loved Mark. I wanted to be with him and he thought some hotshot resident was enough to turn my head. It infuriated me. When he picked at me I ignored his jibes. I tried to see through the accusatory tones for what they were, Mark’s own insecurities. But one night I couldn’t hack it anymore. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>I was enjoying a drink at Joe’s with several other residents. We drank and laughed and before long migrated to the pool table for a wager. I was just about to take my shot when Ben, the resident, offered to show me a trick shot. He came close to me, guiding my hand and before I could take the shot he was gone, on the floor with a bruised face and a broken nose courtesy of mark who had been spying on me. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>I stormed off and took Ben to the ER. Once he was fine I drove home to our apartment and started to throw my things in a bag. I was done with the jealousy. The insecurities. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>We fought through the night. We argued on and off all night until finally I fell asleep on the couch and woke in the morning cuddled up to Mark. As I watched him sleep, peaceful and undisturbed my heart flip-flopped. I looked at the bag that had been hastily packed, still sitting next to the door with my clothes spilling out of it and I sighed. I loved him.  </span>
</p><p>
  <span>I couldn’t leave. So I stayed.</span>
</p><hr/><p>
  <span>After the crash it was hard. Mark was injured as were so many of the others so even though I wanted to be with him all the time I struggled because the hospital was so thin on the ground for staff. I spent my days running around doing my job and then heading to the ICU to spend time with Mark. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>As he got better medically his mental health took a nosedive. He wanted to get ahead of himself. He wanted to get better quicker. To be his old self quicker. To go faster than his body permitted him to go. And when he couldn’t he got frustrated.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>With the nurses. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>With me. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>With himself. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>I tried my best to make him feel better. I tried every tactic I could think of.  I tried to coddle him. I tried tough love. Knowing Mark I even tried offering sexual favours as a reward. Nothing worked. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>It was a hard slog. He was cranky and argumentative and at some points, he was a downright nasty but I put up with it. Because I loved him. I worked hard to get him back to health. I helped him with every step of his recovery and called him out on being an ass. He pushed me away, he told me to leave because he wasn’t the same man he used to be but I didn’t listen to him because even if he was different he was still Mark. My Mark. So I stayed. </span>
</p>
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